Paul's Case: A Study In Temperament

Paul’s Case: Sleep Deprivation
In the short story “Paul’s Case: A Study in Temperament,” Paul is a troubled high school teen. He was recently kicked out of school and does not have the greatest relationship with his father. As a result, this young man takes his life because he just cannot handle life anymore. Many teens struggle with stress which could result to sleep deprivation. Students can be kept up late at night finishing work, resulting in little sleep.
Paul is just an average teenage boy in high school; however, he is very stressed for an ample amount of reasons. He does not have a mother figure, school is very stressful; therefore, he gets in trouble and thrown out of school. A giant issue in Paul’s life could very well be sleep

deprivation. For example, in the story, Paul sneaks into his own house but is then unable to fall asleep due to worrying about unrealistic situations. “He was horribly afraid of rats, so he did not try to sleep, but sat looking distrustfully at the dark, still terrified least he might have awakened his father… With this last supposition Paul entertained himself until daybreak.” ( Cather 108-109) This shows just how stressed, and sleep deprived Paul is. He struggles with many ideas and is kept up late at night constantly, leading him to be sleep deprived.
Paul escapes his hometown by traveling to New York. He steals money from the bank, stays in a fancy hotel, dines pleasurably, and spoils himself. During his stay in New York, Paul has many late nights and early mornings. For example, on his journey he receives very little sleep. “ Paul had slept very little, and he felt grimy and uncomfortable.” (Cather 113) This goes to show how little of sleep Paul was running on. Every night in the hotel he got very little sleep, which lead to sleep deprivation.
The average teenager should get around 9 ¼ hours of sleep every night (Sleep in Adolescents 1). Paul receives much less sleep than an average teen should. Numerous times he is kept up until 1:00 am or later, then wakes up fairly early. This goes to show he is a sleep deprived teen. Two signs of sleep deprivation are trouble thinking/concentrating, and mood changes (Watson and Pietrangelo 1). Paul decides to make a life-changing decision at the train station when he takes his own life. As a sleep deprived teen, he had trouble concentrating and made decisions without thinking them through. As a result, the teen jumped in front of a train, resulting in a suicide death. Sleeping less than 5 hours a night increases the risk of all deaths by 15% (Davis 2). Paul was not in a good state of mind at the time, running on too little sleep, resulting in him making a poor decision.
Sleep deprivation is a very large problem, especially in teen adolescents. Many teens feel stressed at night resulting in little sleep, which leads them to be sleep deprived. Teen brains do not function properly when they do not have the proper amount of sleep. Moreover, in “Paul’s Case,” Paul is a troubled, sleep deprived teen. As a result, he does not think situations through as he should; therefore, he takes his own life by jumping in front of a train.